The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Synopsis

We’ve always known that Spider-Man’s most important conflict has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that his greatest battle is about to begin.

It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp. Directed by Marc Webb. Produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. Screenplay by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner. Screen Story by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner and James Vanderbilt. Based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

It’s been reported that later this month will see a "Spider summit", held for Sony executives to decide exactly what the future of the Spider-Man franchise should be. One way or the other, it’s important that the studio starts making some big changes if they’re going to improve the wall-crawler’s big screen situation. Fortunately, we have some suggestions on how they can improve their current dilemma.

As we’ve been saying all week, 2014 was truly a great year for movies. The entire calendar was filled up with both memorable and surprising features, from indies to blockbusters, and these titles were made up of some incredible cinematic moments that we will not be soon forgetting.

The superhero movie craze is at an all-time high in popularity. It’s not just the hardcore comic book fans that watch these films, it’s the average viewer who is just looking for a good time at the movie theater, and superhero films happen to be one of the best ways to accomplish this.

The editors of the site RiffTrax.com isolated this year’s top offenders, and they included several expected duds. Here, then, are the 10 Worst Movies of 2014, according to the people who get paid to heckle bad movies all year long.

In the months since the underwhelming performance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at the box office this past summer, we have seen an increase in the number of \internet rumors suggesting that a possible deal could be worked out between Sony and Marvel Studios that would see the web-slinger be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It now has been confirmed that those inter-studio conversations are very real.

Today is the day that we celebrate Thanksgiving – the one day a year specifically put aside to look back on the previous few months and give thanks for everything in our lives that makes us happy. For fans of comic book movies, there is plenty to be thankful for.

As the comic book movie world is getting bigger and bigger, the franchise is falling behind – and what it needs is a real and stable plan.
So how can The Amazing Spider-Man series get back on track and suture up its future? That’s precisely the topic at the heart of this week’s Hero Blend.

I always find it fascinating when an actor admits that they haven’t seen a film that they worked on. Johnny Depp is one of those performers who notoriously claims to have never seen a film that he acts in (at least, from start to finish). What, then, is the point?

The future looked bright for Sony’s wall-crawling hero. Now plans are murky. Fluid. Uncertain. So we have seven items we’d love to see addressed – and repaired – to help get everyone back on board for The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

As I wrote in my review when the film was published earlier this year, Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a bit of a mess. I was far from the only person who felt this way, and sections of the internet have been very vocal about the issues. Naturally, this word of mouth found its way back to star Andrew Garfield, but what's really interesting is who he puts the blame on for the final result.

Like it or hate it, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a film that had some important flaws seriously affecting its total effectiveness. You can't totally fault it for that fact, as even the best films manage to get themselves into some serious jams that only some creative screenwriting can get them out of. However, this isn't one even one of the best movies of the summer, much less the entire history of the Marvel comics-based franchise.

The summer of 2014 has been a fascinating season for the comic book genre as a whole, but it’s even more interesting when you notice that in the past few months we’ve seen three very distinct looks into the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.

With the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on Blu-ray and DVD, the filmmaker and his team FINALLY can begin sharing some answers, via commentary tracks, deleted scenes and featurettes, many of which have been leaking online over the past few days.

If you're doing the math at home, you just counted eight baddies, which means this is not the Sinister Six lineup (particularly not with a Venom solo movie also on the horizon). It is interesting that you'd see those earlier baddies there from Sam Raimi's films, particularly considering there are sketches of Doctor Octopus and the Vulture in the room that Marc Webb discusses here briefly, known as “Special Projects.”

Also, Flash Thompson goes to college! Electro has a mom! The effects and soundtracking seem pretty finished, which could mean this stuff was in the finished picture for a very long time before finally being cut. If so, this would have been one very long movie.

Campbell Scott's a really terrific actor, so he always seemed wasted in this role. You needed a guy with some gravity to play Richard Parker, so it's not a terrible choice, no matter the size of the role. But the movies had a real non-committal stance towards Richard Parker and his story, so you're never really certain how much you should care about Peter's quest for his family.

The summer movie season “is expected to finish down 15 to 20 percent compared with 2013, the worst year-over-year decline in three decades, and revenue will struggle to crack $4 billion, which hasn't happened in eight years.”

These aren’t the only major changes suggested by the early draft of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Reportedly, we were supposed to get a few scenes with The Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, with an action scene that sent Spidey and Electro through the newspaper’s offices, and the printing press.

This week, we're halfway through 2014, and the sounds of the year have made their presence known. I've decided to parse through the year's offerings and find my five favorite scores, the one I've been listening to all year, the ones that both enhance the films they accompany, but also stand on their own wonderfully.

How many times have we seen this? How many building can we watch completely collapse and fall to the ground, killing faceless thousands? We're beyond the hand-wringing over whether this level of violence is appropriate or not.

Godzilla made a monster-sized return to the big screen this weekend, banking over $93 million for a number one opening. That start dwarfs the last major Godzilla flick, Roland Emmerich's version which opened at $37 million back in 1998. Even taking into consideration ticket price hikes and 3D sales, it's a step up for the long running giant radioactive beast franchise. It's almost as much as the $101 million that Guillermo del Toro's monster sci-fi action offering Pacific Rim earned during its entire domestic run.

The $92 million take severely trails not only the monster opening of 2007's Spider-Man 3 but even the $115 million scored by the non-3D Spider-Man on the same weekend twelve years ago. The Amazing Spider-Man was the lowest grossing film of the series, and this next one might perform even weaker, despite the boost received from the biggest box office weekend of the year.

The adaptation of any comic book character from the page to the silver screen is a long process, as filmmakers must try and find the best way to create something recognizable to comic book fans, but also at least somewhat realistic. Artists are put to work trying to figure out what will play, and while at the end of the day only one design will be chosen, it's still interesting to see what might have been.

Marc Webb’s decision to go with Gwen over Mary Jane Watson in his rebooted Spidey story, The Amazing Spider-Man, led to rampant speculation that we, one day might be able to see Gwen’s saga played out on the big screen. Of course, that hope also led to all sorts of problems.

This clip seems to begin at a U.S. Army base in Vietnam where enlisted soldiers like Havok (Lucas Till), Toad (Evan Jonigkeit), Ink and a fourth mutant are getting ready to finish their tour and head home. Unfortunately, this is interrupted by the young William Styker (Josh Helman), who wants to drug up the mutants and experiment on them - a la what he does in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

There's a very specific reason why I now consider Webb’s film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, to be the best Spidey movie we've seen to date. Part of it is The best. Part of it’s the action. Part of, it is the chemistry of the leads. But there’s a major sequence I NEEDED to see on screen, and Webb delivered.

May traditionally marks the start of the summer blockbuster season. This weekend The Amazing Spider-Man 2 swung into theaters to kick things off, but depending on how you look at it, the first sequel in the rebooted franchise either got things started with a bang or a pop.

This thread is WIDE open to discussion. You checked out Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Some loved it! Some despised it. We’re giving you an open forum to discuss the movie with the freedom of spoilers!

Because of the amount of charitable work Andrew Garfield and the cast have been doing on this promotional tour, I wanted to ask him about the efforts they were making to bring Spider-Man to the youngest fans. His answer was very touching, and gives us a great look at the man behind the Spider-Man mask.

Which is why we've decided to break down most of the summer's offerings, observing exactly what it is about some films that cause them to succeed and fail. This involved number crunching, market analysis, educated guesses, and the application of a few snobby biases.

While Peter Parker is easily the best known character to take on the secret identity "Spider-Man," he is not the only one. From Miles Morales (who became Spider-Man after the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics) to Miguel O'Hara (who was a futuristic version of Spider-Man in the 2099 series) to Ben Reilly (who was actually a clone of Peter Parker), there is a good history of other characters taking on the arachnid moniker, even though they aren't quite as well known to the public.

Now that we have reached May and the start of the summer blockbuster season, we can expect a regular stream of comic book movies hitting theaters over the next few months. Kicking things off is Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which has done its part to already become one of the most divisive movies of the year.

We’re still celebrating the incredible accomplishment Webb achieved with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which is part of the reason why Sony invited me and my 10-year-old son, P.J., to New York City for the domestic press day on the studio’s film.

Before he was a composer, Hans Zimmer was something of a New Wave rock star in the 1980’s. All the while, the man’s kept his inner rock star somewhat in check, allowing it to come out at live events such as his performance for the film Inception. With last night’s premiere concert for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, he let it all out once more.

Of course, the question still hangs there: what is this movie even about? Centering a movie around Spidey's villains remains a pretty odd choice, and no one even knows if Spider-Man will be in the actual film.

This column will focus solely on the film's use of 3D. Considering seven separate categories, To 3D Or Not To 3D evaluates the full scope of the 3D viewing experience. Think of it as a consumer's guide for your movie-going, complete with a viewers poll where you can weigh in on how you plan to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The Sinister Six are here! Thanks to Shazam and ComingSoon.net, we now have our first confirmed look at the line up of villains ready to terrorize Spider-Man for at least one film and one spin-off of their own. Four are already known, while two are special surprises that may have been speculated, but are now named and confirmed. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to change everything for Peter Parker, but his foes are getting in on the action too.

We have taken a long look back at the history of comic book movies and have determined the five best superhero costume upgrades we’ve seen within single franchises. Read on to see which designs made the cut!

For those of you unaware, Marvel's Ultimate line of comics was considered a reboot, a way to adapt older stories into contemporary times. After Peter Parker died, the legacy he left behind inspired a young black teenager named Miles Morales to take on the mantle of Spider-Man.

Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be out in theaters on May 2. We will have plenty more coverage from the New York press day leading up to the film’s release, so keep it locked to CinemaBlend for all of your Spider-Man news!

This year has already proven to be a big one for comic book movies. Released the first weekend of this month, Marvel Studios' Captain America: The Winter Soldier has made $645 million globally already and is still climbing. We're still waiting to see how well Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to do here in the States, but it's already off to a great start overseas.